A FINE WINE SAFARI

Barolo

The Barolo and Barbaresco appellations of Piedmont are riding high on the world stage. Ever since the block-buster 2010 vintage took the region truly mainstream and global, it seems many of the top producers can do no wrong. This week I met up with Giuseppe Vajra to taste the current release 2012 ahead of the imminent 2013 launch.

Bricco delle Viole is a beautiful south-facing promontory in Barolo. Embraced by the Alpine range on the west, at about 400 meters above sea level, it enjoys favourable thermic variations that develop an elegant, perfumed, crystalline style of Barolo and certainly make it one of my favourite sites in most vintages.

G.D.Vajra Bricco delle Viole Barolo DOCG 2012, 14 Abv.

The 2012 Barolo Bricco Delle Viole is a dark dense broody wine with perhaps more regional weight of fruit than is typical for this site which normally resembles an ethereal, crystalline red Burgundy. The bouquet is a little fuller and riper with a definite gravitas. The aromatics point to liquorice, tar, musk, rose petals, black cherries and strawberry confit. While the core of fruit is dense and dark, the palate displays a most attractive plush sweet cherry fruit concentration, juicy fresh vibrant acids and fine grained, soft mineral tannins. 2012 is a more tricky vintage in Piedmont but you would be wrong to assume that this means the wines aren’t every bit as drinkable as 2010, 11 or 13. Crack your case now and drink over 8 to 15 years.

Like this:

Prunotto has always been the one Antinori single estate that has continued to baffle me. After producing iconic wines in the 60’s and 70’s, and then many gems in the 80’s under Beppe Colla, the fortunes of the winery seemed to wane in the 90’s and early 2000’s. But I recently attended a fascinating retrospective tasting at the 2 Michelin star Greenhouse restaurant with their commercial manager, Emanuel Baldi, to taste some very impressive wines.

After a few glasses of the lovely Tenuta Montenisa Franciacorta Cuvee Royale from Antinori (91+/100 GS) to freshen the palate, we dived straight into their reds.

The Marchesi Antinori family first began its collaboration with the Prunotto Company, at first handling distribution, in 1989, and later, in 1994, when the Colla brothers retired, became directly involved in the production, attempting to maintain the excellent level of quality which Alfredo Prunotto had always insisted upon.

Prunotto Barbera d’Alba Pian Romualdo 2011, 14 Abv.

Opulent and vibrant, showing sweet cherry and strawberry fruits, liquorice, and earthy aniseed root. There is a beautiful fragrance too, with resounding rose petal, potpourri, and wood smoke complexity. The palate is elegant with suave powdery tannins, bright acids and a long black cherry, graphite and cherry pip finish.

The 2005 Bussia is a gorgeous, opulent wine interwoven with scents of dried mint leaf, wood spices and dusty minerals that complement a generous core of fruit. The high quality French oak is beautifully integrated and the wine possesses exceptional overall balance, with a round, concentrated, harmonious finish. Plenty of textural flesh and depth of fruit with a saline, pithy, sweet tannined finish. Very nice.

(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Towards the end of the evening, we were treated to a few bottles of older Prunotto Bussia Barolo. The 1989 was perhaps not the best condition bottle (89+/100) and the 1982 sadly had a hint of cork taint. But it was the glorious 1986 from magnum that stole the show! A tremendous wine drinking very well indeed.

Clearly, Antinori are proud of the illustrious Prunotto past, but also now seem primed to redouble their efforts to make this estate every bit as grand and quality focused as Tignanello, Guado al Tasso or Solaia. Definitely wines to watch!

Like this:

This week I met up with Giovanni Gaja to taste Gaja’s new 2012 Brunello di Montalcino. But discussions soon drifted to Barolo and Barbaresco and what we can expect from the upcoming 2014 vintage.

This chat raised a small perennial gripe I have… how Italian wineries, wine critics and wine consumers are very quick to talk down a vintage when it’s not necessarily a “blockbuster” or if it’s a cooler, fresher, more elegant, accessible vintage. You never hear the Bordelaise talk any vintage down, even when it’s a shocker like 2013.

But it’s the Burgundian’s who are very well versed in the professional art of describing a vintage without saying it’s great or poor. Instead they focus on the weather and how conditions affected the terroir and final wines’ expression. Vintage variation is celebrated. Perhaps this is a better model for Piedmont to follow?

Giovanni Gaja confirmed that 2014 was indeed a difficult vintage and required growers to manage their vineyards and cover crops very carefully in a challenging but potentially good quality year. The summer was wet, cool and cloudy, requiring countless hours in the vineyards. In some areas, like Barolo and Barbaresco, September sun ripened grapes fully.

So like all vintages, consumers should expect variable quality… everything from block busters from some of the top domaines to the occasional weedy dilute wine from lesser growers utilising lesser terroirs. Ultimately, there will be no substitute for tasting before buying. But still, there is no reason to write-off the whole vintage just because the upcoming 2015 is yet another 5 star stunner.

Tasting early release cuvees like Langhe Nebbiolo allows an early snapshot into the quality of fruit. Mauro Mascarello has been at the helm of his family’s estate for more than forty years, building up the winery’s reputation. Their flagship wine may be the fabled Barolo Monprivato, from a stunning south west facing vineyard in the village of Castiglione Falletto in the heart of Barolo, but they also make one of the most respected Langhe Nebbiolo wines in Piedmont.

Like this:

It’s not a secret that Giuseppe Rinaldi is one of my favourite producers in Piedmont. Making an attractive and distinctive Barolo style, Beppe Rinaldi and his daughter Marta, have focused on retaining the traditions of the past while embracing the excellence and purity of modern Barolo.

But this modest wine from the Rinaldi range is a first for me. Vino Rosso Rosae 2014 is made from the Ruche variety, supposedly a grape originating in Burgundy, a region very close to Beppe’s own heart.

Like this:

Guiseppe Rinaldi’s history goes back five generations to the late 19th century, when his family and so many others sold the fruit of their vineyards to the Falletti family. The first Rinaldi winery, still running today under Luciano Rinaldi, was acquired in 1870 from the Falletti’s estate manager, and in the 1920s Giuseppe Rinaldi, grandfather of the current owner, established his own estate with vineyards in Barolo’s best sites… Cannubi, Brunate, Le Coste, and Ravera.

Giuseppe’s son Battista later took over the winery and developed their cellar techniques in order to refine wine quality further. When he passed away in 1992 his son, also named Giuseppe, left his career as a vet to carry on the family work in the winery.

When I visited the winery last year in 2015, Beppe’s daughter Marta kindly hosted us and presented all the estates current releases. The winery just oozes character, the best of everything that’s traditional and authentic about Barolo, one of the greatest appellations in the world.

The rustic Rinaldi tasting room
Tasting Note: This sexy wine displays a beautiful blood red ruby colour. The name on the label elicits numerous emotions but also an expectation of traditional classism and an element of rusticity. The nose is very expressive with red cherry fruits, sweet black plum, earthy forest floor, dusty chalk and a pronounced truffle oil and earthy beetroot complexity. The palate is sleek, vibrant, energetic with wonderfully fleshy, trufflely, red forest berry fruits. There are layers of gravelly minerality, graphite and dry aniseed root nuanced powdery tannins and hints of salty red liquorice. An extra accessibility with exceptional depth of fruit gives drinkers a suggestion of things to come with Beppe’s Barolo 2013s. A wonderful vintage that can’t be far behind 2010 in stature. Drink now to 2024+ (Wine Safari Score: 92+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Like this:

The historic Marchesi di Barolo cellars are located in the town of Barolo, in the building overlooking the famous Castle of the Marquis Falletti. It is here that more than 200 years ago the estate’s story began.

Beginning precisely in 1807, in Paris, when the Marquis of Barolo Carlo Tancredi Falletti married Juliette Colbert de Maulévrier, a French noblewoman and the great granddaughter of the Sun King’s well-known Minister of Finance.

Juliette saw the great potential of the wine made in Barolo that, after fermentation and long aging in wood, would reveal all the qualities typical of the soil and of the Nebbiolo grape, with its power, richness, spice and mineral austerity.

Today the Abbona Family continues the work that began more than two centuries ago producing traditional, high quality wines meant for ageing. While not considered an icon estate in Piedmont terms, it is a universally famous winery with good stocks of older bottles still fairly plentiful on the broking market.

Tasting Note: A fine bright rim of garnet red. Nose is beautifully classical showing coffee bean, burnt orange peel, red cherry skins, peppercorns and pot pourri spice. Lovely raw meat savoury notes of blood and iron. Palate is polished and silky, with tannins showing a hint of spicy bite but are generally sweet, suave and resolved. Dipping my nose back into my Zalto glass reveals more gun powder and smokey gravelly notes. The palate continues to sweeten up the more time the wine sits in the glass. I’m looking for that tantalising moment when the wine blossoms, peaks, then starts to recede and fade as it inevitably will. This wine is a tertiary treasure trove of evolving aromas and flavours. Intriguing macadamia nut spice and red cherry notes lead the wine to a savoury, elegant mineral laden grippy finish. A snap shot of history….and my vintage of course. (Wine Safari Score: 92+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Fine wine is of course not made to be tasted, but drunk, and preferably enjoyed with great food. Our first course, Tagliatelle with braised duck paired beautifully with an impressive Gaja Barbaresco Sori San Lorenzo 1986 (94+/100) and a mature but impressive Carretta Barolo Cannubi Riserva Speciale 1971 (93+/100).

Next blind pair was very intriguing, matched with venison medallions served with a mini shoulder pasty. Beautiful dish, delicious wines. First up, a Chateau Lynch Bages 1970 Pauillac brought along by Neal Martin. This was a rich, earthy wine with lipstick and leather, black berries, licorice, burnt sugar, sweet meat juices and a slightly rustic grainy elegance. (92/100).

The second wine of the pairing was another Bordeaux, a Chateau Haut Bailly 1970 Pessac-Leognan. A touch stinky to start, this wine opened up beautifully to reveal classic cedary spice, earthy gravelly forest fruits, bloody irony complexity and precise, linear acids. Very pretty, regal wine. (93+/100).

Share this:

Like this:

Posts navigation

Greg Sherwood MW is a London based South African Master of Wine and Fine Wine Buyer at Handford Wines in South Kensington. He is a regular judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards, SA Top 100, Nederburg Wine Auction and WOSA World Sommelier Awards, and tastes many of the world's finest wines every week. Join Greg on a safari into wine - you might even spot a few unicorns!